Monthly Archives: November 2012

Liam Burke, a 17-year old Irish deaf male, is profoundly deaf. Hesued an audiologist and the Health Service Executive (HSE) becausethey said he was mildly deaf at birth and CI not necessary. Whenhe got older he got angry after realizing he was profoundly deaf,too late for a CI. In a settlement, HSE and audiologist would notadmit guilt but agreed to give Liam $385,000.

— a vote stolen from a deaf person

William Amey, a former deaf resident of Griswold Heights, NY, did notvote in the 2009 Democratic primary election. Someone else did, usingAmey’s voter registration card. The signature on the card was forged.This testimony was part of the court trial, accusing the localDemocratic party of fraud in voting in the 2009 primary.

— a deaf immigrant refusing welfare checks

Xiong Haoju, a deaf woman from China moved to USA 2 years ago,knowing no ASL but knowing Chinese Sign Language. Her goal wasto find a job and not to stay home and collect welfare benefits.In China, she was not permitted to find a job. Here in USA, shefound a job at a seafood market. A social service agency helpedher get the job. Her boss is very happy with her.

— world’s smallest hearing aid for the world’s smallest man

British actor Michael Henbury, who is 2’11 tall, plays goblin and elfroles in movies. He was losing his hearing and needed a hearing aid.The problem was that hearing aids on the market were too big for hisear. A hearing aid manufacturer came up with a custom-built deviceto fit his ear. Happy with his hearing aid, he has to remind himselfto take it out at night when he goes to sleep.

— deaf clubs must be careful with money

It happens from time to time that a deaf club treasurer would stealmoney. Last week the treasurer of the Jacksonville Community SeniorDeaf Association in Illinois stole $2,500. The treasurer has beenarrested and is awaiting trial. Said a deaf resident of Jacksonville– I was surprised; she is a graduate of Illinois School for the Deaf.It is important that club officers must keep an eye on the clubtreasury instead of blindly trusting the club treasurer.

This means Happy Thanksgiving, as typed on the captioners’realtime keyboard, which is not the same as our QWERTYkeyboard!

— a big Halloween trick and treat shock

A 5-year old hearing girl in Cambridge, Ontario wenttrick and treating on Halloween Night. She receivedplenty of candy and treats that night. That night,she and her family emptied the candy bag. And a bigshock – a hearing aid was in the bag! To this day, the girl’s family have been trying to find the owner to return the hearing aid. No luck!

— a hearing quarterback is careful when screaming at coach

In the Canadian Football League, John Hufnagel coachesthe Calgary Stampeders team. John is hard of hearing.Drew Tate is the team’s quarterback. When things gobad, John and Drew get angry at each other. John said:

Drew knows I’m hard of hearing so he wanted to make sure whenhe said something that I heard him. And I did!

— an amazing deaf photographer

We have a few deaf photographers that are great. ButEdan Chapman is different from these great deafphotographers. He has Usher syndrome, but it doesnot stop him from taking great pictures. He livesin Melbourne, a big city in Australia. He took formalphotography lessons in New Zealand before returningto Australia. And for the 2012 Australian Deaf Games, he was the official photographer, tasked with selecting1,800 pictures for display, from 8,000 pictures that he took during the games week.

— a movie house making captions possible

An owner of three movie houses in a small Californiatown has made captions possible for deaf patrons.He said that 35mm film is no more and that everythingis digital, in computer hard drive. And the cost –nearly $100,000 per brand new projector, per screen. And for the deaf, he loans them special closedcaptioned glasses that has built-in soundamplifier! This is why he raises the prices just alittle bit for admissions and for concessions inorder to pay off the bank loan for these newprojectors!

— a deaf medical school student’s ADA lawsuit

Michael Argenyi, who is deaf, is studying to become adoctor at Creighton University Medical School inNebraska. He has asked the school to provide him withinterpreters and CART. The school only has providedhim with note taking services and power point slideshows. The deaf student said this is not enough.The school disagrees and pointed out that he is already.passing all of his classes. He lost his case inDistrict court and has filed an appeal with the8th Circuit Court of Appeals, St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Wockhardt Hospital poured bio-medical waste on theproperty of the nearby Shankar Nagar School for the Deaf,thus polluting the campus. The local government was angry and fined the hospital a big amount of money and ordered theschool property to be cleaned up. Maybe the hospital don’tcare about the deaf? Hearing people of India say deaf peopleare deaf mutes.

— a follow up on the near-riot in soccer involving a deaf player

DeafDigest mentioned a deaf British soccer player, causinga near riot when he confronted the fans that were mockinghis deafness. It was learned that the reason fans weremocking him was because he, lacking speech skills, usedfunny noise to communicate with his teammates during thegame. The owner of the club that the deaf player wascompeting against is John Griffin, the wealthy owner of a taxi cab fleet. The owner made things worse by mocking the player’s deafness. Public uproar forced Griffin to apologize! And Griffith forgot one thing – that some ofhis taxi customers are deaf.

— a Coda politician that helps the deaf

We have a Coda governor in USA (South Dakota). Does hereally help the deaf? Good question – but in Australia,there is a Coda Member of the Parliament (MP) that wants to help the deaf. MP David Gibson is fighting forimprovement in Australia’s text paging services to give access to the deaf in case of emergencies. Aperfect example would be a car breakdown by a deafdriver in the Outbacks. Population is very low inthat huge area of land.

— will the Deaf Beer die?

A popular craft beer in New Zealand is Emerson’s.This small brewery was started in 1992 by RichardEmerson, who is deaf. New Zealanders rate Emerson’sas one of the best beers around. Will it die? Well,this brewery was sold to a Japanese brewery andthere are rumors that the new owners will shutdown that beer. Already people in New Zealandare upset about it.

— past NAD Executive Director Nancy J Bloch in a new job

Nancy J Bloch served the NAD as Executive Director for19 years before stepping down. She is now in a newposition – Executive Director of communications andpublic records at Florida School for the Deaf andBlind, reporting to president Jeanne Glidden Prickett.Nancy is returning home, as she was born and raisedin Florida.